| LED Digest 2482: What Web Awards are Worth |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom www.GetWebContent.com/LED : the LED's Key Sponsor The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. August 30, 2007 Issue no. 2482 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Do Photos Improve Credibility? ==-- ~ Michael Martinez "Actually, there is scientific proof of an indirect sort..." ~ Carol Moore "...it's not a black and white issue..." --== Recommended Web Awards? ==-- ~ Kythera Ann "If I was only interested in what search engines think you are probably right, but I'm not." ~ Lori Smart "...the Webby Award is the only truly professionally recognized award out there..." ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Michael Martinez Subject: Credibility > Do fellow LED'ers have any views on whether photos > of the owners increase the conversion rate of contacts > to site visitors? Or is there another issue we're missing? - Carol Moore, LED Digest 2480 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1891/190/ > The only way to know for certain would be to do A/B split > testing. I can't offer you such scientific proof, but I can offer > plenty of anecodotal "evidence". - Allan Gardyne, LED Digest 2481 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1892/190/ Actually, there is scientific proof of an indirect sort (and perhaps there are some studies I haven't heard about that address the issue directly). If you are familiar with John Molloy's DRESS FOR SUCCESS, you may recall that he tests every style of clothing (including colors, cuts, and sizes) in all manner of situations, regions, and settings. Conservative New York business men dress differently from laid back southern business men. Having worked in the corporate worlds of Atlanta, Houston, Albuquerque, and Seattle I know first-hand just how different clothing styles can be. The same principles hold true on the Web. If you want to fail utterly on a site like MySpace, wear a navy blue suit in your picture. If you want to make the attorneys click away faster than bees chasing pollen, wear Bermuda shorts on your financial advice site. The impression you make on the Web can be just as polarizing as the impression you make in person. Everything that goes into your Web site presentation determines who will stay and who will leave your site immediately. That includes the pictures you provide of yourself. I often advise authors to make their Web sites look professional and to include at least one professional portrait shot of themselves in their best Sunday Go-to-Meetin' duds. It makes a big difference in many markets because people expect authors to look "authorial". Some authors only post pictures in which they hold books (preferably their own) for the same reason. So if you know your market(s), you should present yourself accordingly on your Web site just as you would in person. Michael Martinez http://www.michael-martinez.com/ -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Carol Moore Subject: Credibility photos I'd like to thank all the people who responded to my post (both on the LED and privately) re using personal photos to improve sales conversion. As ever, the advice was wide ranging, useful, informative and to the point. It's given me a lot to think about and demonstrated that it's not a black and white issue, but needs to be consistent and support the overall business vision. Much appreciated Carol Moore Partner Quo Vadis Solutions http://www.quovadis.ie ============ Sponsor Message =========== Pirates of the Caribbean, what a great flick. Lots of kids want to grow up to be pirates. Some go into the web content business. They loot copy from one client and sell it to many more. The clients get to walk the plank, because duplicate copy is a big SE no-no. At http://GetWebContent.com/LED our copy is custom crafted for you and you alone. ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Kythera Ann Subject: Web awards > Can you show me how jigsaw puzzles and > screen savers actually improve your rankings? - Steve Pronger, LED Digest 2481 Hi Steve, thanks for the welcome though I have been on the list as a lurker for years, I just don't normally post because I don't usually have anything worthwhile to say *grin* My web design is not all about ranking, it is also about keeping visitors once they are there and getting new visitors in unique ways that might never have looked for the site from traditional venues but once stumbling on it they are intrigued with what the site is about and that leads directly or indirectly to sales. For instance, (true stories of my client's sites): There are people out there who love to do on-line jigsaw puzzles. Definately people who love cats and people who love both. So I took cattery pictures (for a cattery client) and created cool graphic photos out of them and then created a dozen jigsaw pages for the site that range in difficulty from easy to difficult. There have been people who came to do the jigsaw puzzles and were intrigued by the pictures, therefore surfed the rest of the site and ended up purchasing a cat from the cattery. For a fine artist's site I also created online jigsaw puzzles out of their amazing floral watercolours. Interestingly enough this led a jigsaw puzzle company to this artist's site and they eventually contracted with the artist to convert some of her art into actual jigsaw puzzles that people buy. For an author who has a history site on Sparta I created a screensaver of photos of Sparta she took on a trip. When the movie 300 came out there were lots of searches for a Spartan screensaver. Many of those who got to her site via the screensaver poked around the rest of the site and bought her books. For a cattery a screensaver can keep their cattery name in view and often the screensaver is sent to another friend that also loves cats, this has led to kitten sales. > ... search engine spiders don't actually look at > graphics, let alone judge their outstandingness. If I was only interested in what search engines think you are probably right, but I'm not. A good or even excellent fine artist will not be as effective selling their art without outstanding presentation through visual media of that art on a web site as one who has an outstanding presentation (we are assuming the two web sites are the same style and subject of art). A graphic designer, like myself, will not be likely to get clients without outstanding graphics on their web site. A cattery will usually get the sale based on their graphic presentation of the cats...I am not necessarily talking about just good photography, I am talking graphic presentation. If it is an exotic cat such as a bengal, crop the cat out of the original background and place them in a jungle peering between vegetation or stalking prey and those who want an exotic cat will go for that one over the simple photographic presented cattery. > Hmmm. Not sure how much energy I expended building my > sites... but I have managed to get most of them to rank pretty > well without winning any awards. I think that is great, but it is not how it works for me. I spend countless hours not only working directly with my client but coding everything by hand and creating every graphic individually. When I make a site, because the client wishes it, prepared for ranked awards there are not only more elements that I must make sure I covered (such as certifying it for safe surf, making sure there is a separate page called "mission statement," and others are in place, interactive things for visitors to do such as jigsaw puzzles, default pages that are unique to the site, each page must be compliant, etc.) but I also personally take the time to submit and track the process through the judging of the various awards. I would prefer to make them feel good by building a site which achieves a measurable objective. If the client's objective is to feel good because his website won an award, then fine. But surely an artist's objective is to sell his art, an author to sell his books, and catteries, caterers and counsellors all want to generate leads for their respective services. All these things are measurable. > What's more important to your clients, effective > online marketing of their business or you winning > awards? I do not win the award, my client's site does. The site does make them feel good, but the awards often thrill them. We can agree to disagree about the award's ability (through process or receiving) to enhance traffic / ranking / or sales to the web site. > Where are these links coming from and are they > actually passing value? Do you not have to link out > to the awards site? Did a site show significant ranking > improvement AFTER an award was given...? As an example http://www.animationgold.com/ is a site that does ranked awards and has "passing value" for a beginning site. Or http://www.jkerkkonen.com/index.htm does an awesome and thorough job of analyzing the site for a client. He's also a delightful and knowledgeable person that wants to share, for free, much knowledge and expertise. He sits on the web compliance board (I think I've got that right, W3c). While the site is under review (which can take as long as three months because the site is checked for new content etc) the review site has a link on the award giver's site, yet the site being reviewed does not. So for three months it is a one way link to the site, very cool. Once the award is won, if the person chooses to post it to their site, then it will be linked to the award giving site. Of course one could put a "no follow" tag on that link. The site that the award was given from now usually not only permanently links the recipient's site but it is a contextual link with a site description. I did a test with an author, two sites, opened at the same time, one went for rated awards, the other didn't. The one that went for rated awards received more traffic and better link ranking than the other during a three month test. We dropped the second site and focused on the award ranking one. > ... are they visiting these sites as targeted, motivated, > potential customers, or are they just turned on by the > practice of passing judgement? "Cool" websites don't > necessarily turn a profit. "Cool" web sites don't necessarily "not" turn a profit either. I know for a fact that because a website was recommended as "cool" I have purchased things and I would probably not have been purposely shopping for that item or found the website otherwise. I send to newsgroups and friends "cool" sites I have built or found. Those email recommendations have led to sales. Every person is always a potential customer if you are offering something to the public at large. I am not saying that Rated Awards are appropriate for every site, nor am I saying that they are the best and most effective way of getting traffic / sales. I am saying they are a method that can help accomplish that, and therefore I don't believe they should be ditzed in all situations. Kind Regards, Kythera Ann -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Lori Smart Subject: Web awards Web awards have been around for a long time. Most of them are simply handed out to drive traffic to the awarders' websites. There are a few out there that will even actually give you feedback on your site, but really, who gives them the authority to do so anyway? They all seem to lack credibility. In my very humble opinion, I believe that the Webby Award is the only truly professionally recognized award out there for web sites. Please let me know if there are others, but all the ones I've ever seen are simply linkback bait. I can only see these as irrelevant or even possible detrimental to your search engine ranking. I think that if you want some sort of professional industry pat-on-the-back, validating your code on w3.org (http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/#validators) could be what you need. If you're looking for some sort of feedback on site layout, look, usability, etc., I doubt there's a credible web award program out there that means anything to anyone. Lori Smart InternetDesign.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by: GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. Free no-obligation proposal: http://GetWebContent.com/LED SEOToolSet.com Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification Join the certified SEO directory: www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/189/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/187/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/201/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. 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